On the evening of June 23,听forestry worker Dee Gallant, 45, was walking with her听115-pound husky retriever,听Murphy, on听a remote logging road a half-hour鈥檚 drive from her home in Duncan, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It wasn鈥檛 long before she realized they weren鈥檛 alone.
Here鈥檚 her story as told to 国产吃瓜黑料.
I鈥檓 not into dog parks, so I like to go up the mountain with my dog, where there aren鈥檛 other people. The trail I was on this time is听in a gated area and not publicly accessible, but I used to work up there, and the crew doesn鈥檛 care.
It was already dusk when I started, but I thought I鈥檇听go anyway, because Murphy needed听his walk.
A couple of kilometers up the road, I could feel something watching me. You know when the hair goes up on the back of your neck, and you just know something鈥檚 wrong? Over to my right, I saw this brown, rusty patch of ground that didn鈥檛 look right. Then I realized it was a cougar. Just a minute before, about 25 feet back down the trail,听I had had to pee, so I had stepped off the trail and copped a squat. If I had waited another 15 feet, I would have been crouched down and in a really vulnerable position when it showed up.
My first thought after seeing the cat was,听This is so awesome.听My second thought was, It鈥檚 coming toward听me. This is not awesome.
I raised my arms and waved them to try and look big, but it kept coming. So听I stopped and looked at it and said, 鈥淗ey, you stop!鈥 And it did.
Then听I slowly pulled my phone out of my pocket to get a picture of it, but it was accidentally set on video, so I .
It didn鈥檛 go away. It locked eyes and stayed there with me for probably five minutes, but it seemed like an eternity.
Murphy was on a really long Flexi leash, so I pulled him in close so we looked bigger together. But Murphy didn鈥檛 see the cat鈥擨 guess he was sniffing around looking for bunnies, which was probably for the best.
The cougar and I just stared at each other as I told it off. I called it a bad kitty, said I鈥檇 fight him, and yelled other things at it to see if it would leave. I wasn鈥檛 super scared at that point. But I wanted to be on my toes. I鈥檓 a pretty tough, Harley-riding kind of girl. I do kickboxing. I knew I鈥檇 get hurt if I had to fight it, but I wasn鈥檛 going to just give up.
That鈥檚 when I decided I needed to do something a little bit different, because it wasn鈥檛 going away. I stopped recording听and started swiping through my music library looking for songs that have a real punch-in-the-face kind of start.听I went past and Jack Johnson, the mellow stuff. Then I saw 鈥淒on鈥檛 Tread on Me鈥 by . That was perfect, just what I wanted. I turned my volume all the way up and hit play. After being so fixated on me and looking so confident, the cat just turned and bolted into the bush as soon as it heard the music.
The cougar and I just stared at each other as I told it off. I called it a bad kitty, said I鈥檇 fight him, and yelled other things at it to see if it would leave.
I didn鈥檛 know how large it was until it turned sideways鈥攊t was a lot bigger than I thought. I wouldn鈥檛 be able to take that kitty. I got nervous. I wasn鈥檛 sure where it was at that point or if it was going to jump out at me.
Murphy and I continued our hike since we were already there, but I kept my phone in my hand, music ready to go. I talked really loud to Murphy and stayed in the middle of the road the whole way. He kept looking at me like I was losing my mind. But we made it out and went home.
The video went viral when I posted it on Facebook. The following week, I got a message from the artist-liaison service for Metallica, telling me that one of the band members wanted to reach out. Soon after that, I was sitting at my desk at work and got a call from a number I didn鈥檛 recognize. I almost didn鈥檛 answer since I was at work, but my boss said it was OK. When I picked up the phone, this super deep voice said, 鈥淗i Denise, this is James Hetfield from Metallica.鈥 I almost fell off my chair. We talked about what happened, dogs, and the places we live.
I鈥檝e had a lot of people tell me they won鈥檛 go hiking without Metallica on their phone, and I tell them that鈥檚 great, by all means go buy one of their albums on iTunes. I can鈥檛 guarantee it will work鈥攄on鈥檛 sue me if it doesn鈥檛鈥攂ut it certainly did for me. I鈥檓 glad to be alive.